E-Verify Points

What is E-Verify?• Free, safe, secure and simple to use, E-Verify provides participating employers an automated Internet-based resource to verify the employment eligibility of newly-hired employees.

• Participating employers electronically compare information taken from the I-9 Form (the paper-based form currently used to verify the work eligibility of all new hires) against more than 449 million records in Social Security Administration’s database and more than 60 million records in Department of Homeland Security immigration databases.

• E-Verify utilizes special safeguards to ensure that employees are not discriminated against. Additionally, the program ensures that employees’ privacy and civil liberties are protected.

Why should employers use E-Verify?

• E-Verify enables cheap, efficient, and accurate compliance with the federal ban on hiring illegal aliens. It is currently the best means available for employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees.

• E-Verify improves the accuracy of wage and tax reporting, protects jobs for authorized U.S. workers, and helps U.S. employers maintain a legal workforce.

• E-Verify provides a safe harbor for businesses that use the system in good faith. When an employer obtains confirmation of the identity and employment eligibility of an individual, a rebuttable presumption is established that the employer has not violated federal law with respect to the hiring of an illegal alien.

What is the E-Verify Accuracy Rate?

• 96.9 percent of all queries are automatically verified as employment-authorized either instantly or within 24 hours.

Non-confirmations occur because:
The employee is not authorized to work in the United;
The employee has failed to update his or her records with SSA (for example, to reflect changes in name or citizenship status); and
The employer made an error when entering information into the E-Verify system.
Non-confirmations constitute 3.1 percent of E-Verify queries. Of this amount, only 0.3 percent are cases where individuals need to clear up errors in their Social Security Administration records. The rest are not authorized to work in the U.S. Therefore, the E-Verify error rate is only 0.3 percent.

Those who have inaccuracies are given instructions on how to clear up their records with SSA and time to do so. The bottom line is that nobody is automatically ruled out for work authorization and those eligible to work in the U.S. will not lose their job. If a person is not work authorized, it’s not discrimination. It’s following the law.

How widely is E-Verify used?

• E-Verify is now being used to determine work authorization for 1 in 4 new hires. About 170,000 employers have signed up to use the program.
• About 1,000 employers per week are signing up for the E-Verify program despite that fact that it has remained voluntary at the federal level except for federal contractors. Only 12 states require its use in some manner by employers.

What is the Federal Government saying about E-Verify?

• On 9/8/09, the Obama Administration began requiring federal contractors to use E-Verify. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says that E-Verify is an essential tool for employers to maintain a legal workforce and a cornerstone of workplace enforcement across the country. She recognizes that we cannot stop illegal immigration without removing the jobs magnet that draws illegal workers to communities.

Reasons to Support E-Verify

• E-Verify will ensure that citizens and legal residents will not have to compete with illegal aliens for jobs.

• There are no longer any valid excuses for allowing government funds to be used to hire illegal workers, not when there are so many citizens and legal residents struggling to find work.

• The federal government has stepped up to the plate to protect American workers by requiring its contractors to use E-Verify. Now, it’s time for states to do their part.

False Allegations About E-Verify

Qualified workers won’t have a chance to prove that they are authorized to work.

Response: Every individual that gets a tentative non-confirmation is given instructions on how to clear up their records with the Social Security Administration and time to do so. Most cases can be taken care of by phone and involve married or divorced women who did not update their records with SSA. The bottom line is that nobody is automatically ruled out for work authorization and those eligible to work in the U.S. will not lose their job. No citizen or work-eligible legal immigrant has ever lost his/her job because of E-Verify. If there is an inaccuracy in the SSA database, it is best to know about it and rectify it prior to applying for retirement benefits.

Mandatory E-Verify participation would be a burden and increase the cost of doing business.

Response: According to a 2007 study by Westat, 96% of long-term E-Verify users disagreed or strongly disagreed that the tasks required by the system overburden their staff. Any human resources employee assigned to collect information for the Federal I-9 form would simply spend a few extra seconds typing the same data into the E-Verify system. 96.9% of responses come either instantly or within 24 hours. If the business does not have a human resources employee, vendors are available to provide this service on a per-employee or subscription basis. Rates are very affordable.

E-Verify could lead to discrimination.

Response: E-Verify provides the very basis for eliminating hiring discrimination because all new hires must be checked. The system cannot be used selectively for verifications based on foreign appearance.

SSA Database error rates make E-Verify unworkable.

Response: The real error rate is only 0.3 percent. What other government program can boast that it works correctly 99.6% of the time?

E-Verify doesn’t protect against identity theft cases.

Response: The one weak point that remains in E-Verify is the small problem it has with false positives when a legitimate identity is stolen. However, since employers are provided a safe harbor for using the system in good faith, a false positive will not reflect on the employer. DHS is working hard to keep E-Verify ahead of identity theft and fraud – like all programs reliant on identity verification. DHS is adding to E-Verify the digital photos from IDs issued to non-citizens as well as passport photos to help with visual identification.